Pro Wrestling

[The Baron]

I was watching the Savage/Warrior "retirement" match on disk last night, and it came to the ending where Elizabeth threw Sherri out of the ring, and the thought came to me, "Both of these women are dead now, it's depressing."

[PowerBook Pete, the Mad Mod]

Dr Death Steve Williams has passed away.

[The Baron]

PowerBook Pete said:

Dr Death Steve Williams has passed away.

Shame. Another one gone too young.

[Larfleeze]

What a great match that was.

The ending with Sherri/Elizabeth would have been a perfect send-off of Macho Man's career...but he came back.

(Not complaining about the comeback - one of my favorite wrestlers of all-time)

[KSwolf]

RIP, Jack Brisco.

http://www.f4wonline.com/content/view/12162/

[PowerBook Pete, the Mad Mod]

I think the first time I saw pro wrestling was when Jerry Lawler was challenging Brisco for the NWA World title.

[PowerBook Pete, the Mad Mod]

Some New Zealand TV wrestling is available on the Web.

[John Dunbar]

A few questions if I may for you knowledgeable folks:
1. In the pre-Wrestlemania era, were you able to watch the various promotions on television, or was it just the one(s) that were in your state?
2. Here where I live in the Maritimes, the local circuit was known as Atlantic Grand Prix Wrestling. The main star was Leo Burke, who I believed wrestled in the U.S. as Tommy Martin. Have any of you ever heard of Leo aka Tommy, or seen him wrestle?
3. I've watched a few clips of Georgia Championship Wrestling on youtube, any thoughts on why Mr Wrestling II and Austin Idol weren't bigger stars?
4. Was Mr Wrestling II the same guy who feuded with Magnum T.A. before Magnum made it big in the NWA?
5. On Raw last night they announced Antonio Inoki was being inducted in the WWE Hall of Fame. I read about the Inoki / Muhammed Ali wrestler versus boxer match, did any of you see it at the time? I didn't, but I read about it in Freddie Blassie's book; Blassie and Vince were really going to screw around with Ali until Vince Senior put a stop to it.

Thanks in advance guys!

[PowerBook Pete, the Mad Mod]

1. We were able to watch some others. In addition to the Memphis local show, we could see Georgia and World Class on cable. AWA may have been available, too, but I don't recall seeing it that early. I was also able to turn my antenna and get a show out of northern Alabama, which had some of the same people as Memphis but not at the same time.

[Howard Bagby]

Growing up in central Illinois we watched AWA. If the weather was right we could occasionally get the St Louis stations and a few times I saw Wrestling At The Chase. I didn't see Hogan in AWA. The stars that I can remember were Wahoo McDaniel, Superstar Billy Graham, Nick Bockwinkle, Ray Stevens, Baron Von Raschke and Larry "The Axe" Henning. I am sure I am forgetting a few.

[The Baron]

I grew up in Massachusetts, but I didn't start watching wrestling regularly until right around the time of Wrestlemania III. I never saw anything but WWF programming until we got cable.

[PowerBook Pete, the Mad Mod]

In the mid-80s, Memphians could see the local show on the NBC affiliate, AWA and World Class on ESPN, Southwest and WWF on USA, Mid-South/UWF, Mid-Atlantic, Atlanta, and Florida. For a short time, there was another promotion coming out of Dallas in addition to World Class.

Just a few weeks ago, there were three different local promotions on one Memphis channel. I think that lasted one day.

[Mike Parnell]

I grew up in North Carolina and we watched wrestling from Jim Crockett promotions. I remember when Ric Flair started wrestling with Rip Hawk, who was once partnered with Swede Hanson. Also, in the 60s, the big partners in tag teams was the Infernos against Johnny Weaver and George Becker. The single wrestlers that were big were Wahoo McDaniels, Johnny Valentine, Ricky Steamboat and an old time favorite, Sailor Art Thomas.